Electrical interconnecting system and parts



Jan. 6, 1970 G, L ND R N ET AL 3,488,628

ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTING SYSTEM AND PARTS Filed Sept. 27, 1967 4Sheets-sheaf 1 1970 R. s. LUNDERGAN L 3,488,628

ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTING SYSTEM AND PARTS 4 Sheets$heet 2 Filed Sept.27, 1967 Jan. 6, 1970 R. s. LUNDERGAN ET L 3,488,628

ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTING SYSTEM AND PARTS Filed Sept. 27. 1967 4Sheets-Sheet 3 R. e. L'UNDERG'AN T AL 3,488,628

ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTING SYSTEM AND PARTS Filed Sept. 27, 1967 Jan. 6,19 70 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 3,488,628 ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTING SYSTEM ANDPARTS Robert Graham Lundergan, Camp Hill, and Charles Edward Reynolds,Harrisburg, Pa., assignors to AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pa.

Filed Sept. 27, 1967, Ser. No. 671,061 Int. Cl. Hlllr 9/16, 15/04; Hk1/12 US. Cl. 339-258 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION Field of the invention The invention is for use in theelectrical field for connecting various components in a modular system.The connectors have general utility and are not restricted to thespecific system shown in the drawings.

Description of the prior art US. Patents Nos. 3,060,402, and 3,156,517,disclose solder well terminals which perform a portion of the functionsperformed by the instant connectors; however, the structural differencesbetween the prior art and the instant connector permits the latter tohave extreme versatility in various modular arrangements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The plug connector has inwardly directed prongsfor receiving and holding wire conductors prior to dip soldering theconnector. The receptacle is insertable in a printed circuit board forfrictionally receiving the plug connector. An alternative form connectoris not pluggable but rather frictionally receives a printed circuitboard to connect the board to wire conductors contained within theconnector.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of amodular system employing the teachings of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view showing another modular system showing amodification of the invention;

FIGURE 3 is an exploded perspective view of a connector and mountingblock;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view partly in section showing the connectorof FIGURE 3 in position on a mounting board;

FIGURE 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 55 of FIGURE 6and showing interior details of the connector of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 66 of FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 is an exploded perspective view showing a receptacle andcircuit board;

FIGURE 8 is a perspective view showing the receptacle of FIGURE 7mounted within a board;

United States Patent O FIGURE 9 is a view partly in section showing theconnector of FIGURE 4 mated with the receptacle of FIGURE 8;

FIGURE 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 1010 of FIGURE9;

FIGURE 11 is a side elevational view of an alternative form ofconnector;

FIGURE 12 is an exploded side elevational view of a further modifiedform of connector and receptacle;

FIGURE 13 is a view similar to FIGURE 12 and showing the parts in theirassembled position;

FIGURE 14 is a front elevational view of tacle shown in FIGURES 12 and13; and

FIGURE 15 is a top plan view of the receptacle shown in FIGURE 14.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The attainments of the presentinvention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon areading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunctionwith the drawings in which there are shown and described illustrativeembodiments of the invention; it is to be understood, however, thatthese embodiments are not intended to be exhaustive nor limiting of theinvention but are given for purpose of illustration in order that othersskilled in the art may fully understand the invention and the principlesthereof and the manner of applying it in practical use so that they maymodify it in various forms, each as may be best suited to the conditionsof a particular use.

In FIGURE 1 there is shown a modular system which may be a portion of atelevision or radio receiver or the like. A chassis 20 is shown havingprovision for mounting insulating blocks 22. The blocks 22 have a seriesof apertures disposed therealong for receiving electrical connectors 24and 26. The connectors receive wire conductors 48 and are pluggablewithin receptacles 30 and 32 respectively. The receptacles 30 and 32 areshown mounted for example on a printed circuit board 34 havingelectrical components 36 on its top surface and printed circuit strips38 disposed along its lower surface.

The connector 24 will now be described with particular reference toFIGURES 3-6. The insulating board 22 has a series of generallyrectangular openings 40 disposed therein for receiving the connectors24. The connectors are inserted within the opening and are positionedtherein by stop means 42 disposed along opposite sides of theconnectors. The lower end of the connector has tine means 44 for passingthrough the openings 40 to be bent outwardly for engaging the lowersurface of member 22 to secure the connectors in position.

Connectors 24 are preferably formed from a single flat sheet of metalwhich sheet is wrapped into a generally rectangular configuration withthe two ends of the sheet forming a seam 46. The lower portion of theconnector is open for receiving electrical conductors 48 insertedthrough member 22 into the connector.

A plurality of contact fingers 50 are struck from the sidewall portions52 of the connector and are bent inwardly to a position whereat the freeends 54 of the fingers lie closely adjacent the opposite internalsurface of the connectors from which the fingers are struck. The freeends of the fingers are bent so as to lie in a plane which is at a steepangle to the plane of the sidewalls of the connector.

the recep- The top end portion 56 of the connector is bent over into agenerally closed configuration. The conductors 48 are inserted into theconnector until their end portions seat against end 56 of the connector.The connector shown in the drawings has three contact fingers and isdesigned to receive up to three electrical conductors. This number may,of course, vary to suit the conditions of a particular use. Each of theconductors 48 will be held within the connectors 24 by one of thecontact fingers 54 acting in cooperation wiith an internal surface ofthe connector (see FIGURES 5 and 6). It can be seen that each of thefingers acts independently of the other fingers thereby permitting theconnector to receive conductors of varying size such as shown in FIGURE6 of the drawlngs.

The force exerted by the fingers is sufiicient to retain the conductorsin position within the connector 24. In normal use the member 22 willhave a row of connectors 24 mounted therein with conductors 48 extendingwithin each of the connectors. The entire assembly will then bedip-soldered causing the entire internal area of the connectors tobecome filled with solder thereby making a permanent electricalconnection between the connectors and conductors. The members 22 maythen be secured in some fashion to the chassis 20 in position for theupper ends 56 of the connectors to be inserted within matingreceptacles.

The connectors 24 will mate with the receptacles 30 shown in FIGURE 1and illustrated in FIGURES 7-10. The receptacles are normally mounted ona printed circuit board on the same side as the electrical component sothat the entire assembly can be flow-soldered as one unit. The board 34will be provided with a row of rectangular openings 58 which openingsextend through the board and intersect the circuitry 38 on the lowerside of the board. The receptacles 30 are inserted into the board fromthe lower side and are limited in the direction of insertion by stopmeans 60 extending outwardly from the lower portion of the receptacle.Stop means 60 is adapted to be bent into contact with the circuitrystrips 38 in a manner as shown in FIGURE 8. The receptacle comprises astrap portion 64 from which extends a pair of contact members 66 forcooperating with the connectors 24 as will be described. A pair of cars68 extend from an upper strap portion 70 said ears serving to limitoutward movement of the contacts 66. The ears 68 may be convenientlyformed by coining or similar operation. A pair of sidewall portions 72extend .between the strap portions 64 and 70 and have their lowerportions bowed outwardly (see FIGURE for spreading beyond the sides ofopenings 58 to prevent withdrawal of the receptacles through the board34. There are large open areas 74 provided around the contacts 66. Whenthe board 34 has all of the receptacles 30 positioned within theopenings 58 the entire board will be dipsoldered to permanently connectthe stops 60 to the circuitry 38. During the soldering operation thesolder will tend to enter the receptacle by capillary action but thelarge open areas 74 prevent the solder from entering the receptacle. Theareas 74 provide a discontinuity in the receptacle to thus offset thecapillary action. After the soldering operation the board 34 is readyfor assembling onto the chassis 20 and this is done by lowering theboard to cause the connectors 24 to enter the receptacles 30 whereby thecontacts 66 will engage the side surfaces of the connectors to therebyelectrically connect the conductors 48 with the conductors 38.

In FIGURE 11 there is shown a connector 76 which is similar to theconnectors 24 previously described with the exception that connector 76is not for insertion within a receptacle but rather has a contact arm 78which extends from one side of the connector and lies generally parallelto an external surface of the connector. The connector 76 receives aprinted circuit board 79 or the like into the opening created by the arm78 in a manner such as shown in FIGURE 2. The arm 78 has a U-shapedsection at its free end as indicated at 80 to thus yield a pair ofrunners which will contact the circuitry of a board inserted into theconnector. The connector 76 thus serves to electrically join theconductors 48 which extend into the connector with the circuitry on theprinted circuit board 79.

In FIGURE 12 there is shown a further modification of the connector andreceptacle of the instant invention. The connector 26 is identical tothe connector 24 previously described with the exception that connector26 has a circular rather than rectangular cross-sectional configuration.The receptacle 32 is mounted on board 34 in the same manner as thereceptacles 30 previously described except that the receptacle 32 isdesigned to receive the cylindrical connector 26. Receptacle 32 isgenerally of an inverted U-shaped configuration. The sidewalls 82 of thereceptacle engage the upper surface of board 34 and cooperate with thelower stop means 84 for retaining the receptacle in position. Tines 86are connected to the circuitry 38 in the same manner as the stops 60 onthe receptacle 30. The sidewalls 82 of the receptacle are joined by atop portion having a circular opening 87 disposed therein. The diameterof the opening is slightly smaller than the external diameter ofconnector 26. When the connectors are inserted into the receptacles 32the connectors will cause the sidewall portions 82 to spread thuscausing opening 87 to spread to receive the connector and to engagetightly the external surface of the connectors. The spreading of thereceptacle is permitted by the slotted portions 88. The normalresiliency of the receptacle 32 is sufiicient to establish a goodelectrical connection between the receptacle and the connector 26.

Changes in construction will occur to those skilled in the art andvarious apparently different modifications and embodiments may be madewithout departing from the scope of the invention. The matter set forthin the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by wayof illustration only.

We claim:

1. An electrical connector comprising an elongated body member ofsubstantially closed configuration, said member having means at one endthereof for securing said member to a mounting means, said memberfurther having a plurality of resilient fingers lanced from said bodymember and extending in cantilever fashion from opposed internalsurfaces, each said finger extending toward an unlanced portion of itsrespective opposed internal surface, the free end of each of saidfingers lying closely adjacent to its said respective opposed internalsurface to retain a conductor therebetween, said connector having meansat said one end thereof for receiving a conductor and having means atthe opposite end thereof for insertion into a mating connector.

2. An electrical connector as set forth in claim 1 wherein said fingerslie in crossing relation within said body member.

3. An electrical connector as set forth in claim 2 wherein said fingersare curved at their free ends to lie at a steep angle to the saidrespective opposed internal surfaces with which they cooperate.

4. An electrical connector as set forth in claim 3 further comprisingstop means on said body member for positioning said connector on saidmounting means.

5. An electrical connector comprising an elongated body member ofsubstantially closed configuration, said body member having means at oneend thereof for securing said body member to a mounting means, saidmember further having contact means extending internally thereof, saidcontact means being coopera'ble with an internal surface of said bodymember for retaining a conductor therebetween, said body member havingmeans at said one end thereof for receiving a conductor, and a contactarm ex- 5 6 tending from said one end of said body member, said arm3,060,402 10/ 1962 Olsson et a1 339275 XR being cooperable with anexternal surface adjacent to and 3,156,517 11/1964 Maximoff et a1339-220 extending from said one end of said body member for receiving acircuit board, and said contact arm having FOREIGN PATENTS asubstantially U-shaned end portion for contacting a 5 1280703 11/1961France. conductor on sand clrcult board,

MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner References Cited P. A. CLIFFORD,Assistant Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,503,559 4/1950 Miloche339-275 XR 10 US. Cl. X.R. 2,830,278 4/1958 Schwarz 339'275 XR 317101;33917

